Tom Penders

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Tom Penders is currently the head coach at the University of Houston. In his first two seasons as head coach, the Cougars have compiled a 39-24 record, and have made appearances in the NIT tournament both years.

Prior to coaching at Houston, Penders served as a head coach at Tufts University, Columbia University, Fordham University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Texas, and George Washington University. Penders also did television work for ESPN between his stints at George Washington and Houston.

During his time at Rhode Island and Texas, Penders was often considered a candidate for NBA Head Coaching jobs, but never would leave the college ranks.

[edit] Texas Ouster

Despite accumulating a 208-110 record in ten years at Texas, Penders was forced to resign in April 1998 and accept a $643,000 buyout. At that point, Penders still had four years left on his $550,000 annual contract. Penders was ousted because of a scandal centering around freshman Luke Axtell. Axtell was suspended from the team on March 17 for academic reasons and he announced his intention to transfer from the school. The next day, his grades were faxed to local radio station KVET-AM, a blatant violation of the Buckley Amendment.

Assistant coach Eddie Oran initially confessed to faxing the grades without informing Penders, who was in the Caribbean when the grades were faxed. However, testimony from both Oran and Texas AD DeLoss Dodds in the suit Oran v. Penders implicated Penders as the decision-maker to release the grades. Oran blamed Penders for ruining his coaching career because, after Penders chose to not bring him along to George Washington, he was blackballed from another job by his past. However, the jury in his civil suit sided with Penders.

[edit] George Washington Ouster

Penders was very apathetic during his brief coaching career at George Washington. Despite the scandal at Texas, he was hired to succeed Mike Jarvis. If his childhood friend Jack Kvancz had not been the GW Athletic Director, he likely never would have been hired. Penders immediately began making excuses for his performance by taking numerous shots at Jarvis for leaving little talent on the roster. During his final two seasons at GW, the team was led by SirValient Brown who fired up shots repeatedly for no apparent reason. Brown's decision to forgoe his final two collegiate seasons for an unsuccessful NBA career, and his abysmal GPA perfectly captured the Penders Era at GW.

The 2000-01 season was the first losing season in eleven years at GW. Afterwards, four players admitted to making over $1,400 worth of long distance phone calls on an account provided by assistant coach Tom Penders, Jr. Plus, One opposing coach had referred to GW as "the dirtiest team in the country" and was involved in a brawl against the University of Tennessee.

Furthermore, Penders faced another scandal involving his team. Attila Cosby, a transfer recruited by Penders from Pitt, faced nine misdemeanors stemming from an incident in which he lured a prostitute to his dorm room, sodomized her with a broomstick, and then stole her roll of quarters. Cosby initially faced a felony rape charge, but it was dropped when his accuser failed to appear in court. Penders learned of the allegations from Cosby but withheld the information from the Athletic Department for two months.

Penders ultimately resigned because of "burn-out" and still received more than $1,000,000 from the school that was owed to him on his contract. Karl Hobbs was hired to replace him and steadily restored the school's basketball success.

[edit] College

Penders was a guard on the University of Connecticut Basketball team from 1964-1967.

Preceded by: Mike Jarvis

George Washington University Head Basketball Coach 1998-2001

Succeeded by: Karl Hobbs